WINCHESTER — The first month of the high school cross country season might not have gone the way James Wood’s Kate Konyar wanted, but that sure changed on Saturday.
The senior dominated the Judges Classic at Kernstown Battlefield for the second straight year with an even more impressive effort than her victorious 2024 performance.
Konyar — who won last year’s Judges Classic by one minute, 19.04 seconds — didn’t win by as wide a margin as she did in 2024. But she ran more than 10 seconds faster to beat 109 competitors in 18:42.47 over the 3.1-mile cross country course.
Konyar — the 2024 runner-up in Class 4 — dusted last year’s Class 5 runner-up, Briar Woods junior Megan Greenlund, by 43.45 seconds. There was a wider gap between Konyar’s time and Greenlund’s time (19:25.92) than there was between Greenlund and the eighth-place finisher.
Konyar hadn’t been running poorly this season by any means. For example, she placed second out of 135 runners to defending Class 3 state champion Samantha Nitzsche, a junior at William Monroe, in a solid 18:54 at the Dave Davis Invitational at Great Meadow on Sept. 6. Her time was 19 seconds behind Nitzsche.
But last weekend at the Oatlands Invitational in Leesburg, she placed 11th out of 507 runners in 18:53.96, more than a minute behind the champion Nitzsche and 18 seconds slower than what she ran at last year’s Oatlands Invitational.
Konyar’s last four races of the Virginia High School League season last year were all 18:32 or better, so naturally, she wanted to take a leap toward that level on Saturday.
“I’m very pleased,” Konyar said. “We’ve been having very hard weeks. You’ve got to put the training in around this time of the season. The past few races haven’t been my best, so I’ve been kind of [wanting more]. I’m sore and am getting used to all the hard training, so this was kind of, ‘Yesss.’ I finally ran a really good race.”
Unlike like last year, Konyar wasn’t able to pair her individual title with a team championship in the competition that featured 18 full girls’ teams and 22 schools. The two-time defending champion Colonels (fifth in Class 4 last year) took second with 87 points. That was six points behind Briar Woods (81), the third-place team in Class 5 last year.
Handley placed third with 117 points, Clarke County was seventh with 199 and Sherando was 14th with 318.
In the boys’ race, Heritage (Leesburg) won with 73 points and Fauquier was second with 113 out of 16 scoring teams and 19 schools. Handley led local squads by taking seventh (180), and the Judges were followed by Sherando (eighth, 187), Clarke County (11th, 224) and James Wood (14th, 351).
Konyar said that as she gets faster in races, the times she’s expected to run in workouts get faster. And she said James Wood’s workouts have been preparing the team for the challenging courses the team has had for meets.
“We’ve been doing more hills, because we’ve just been hammered with really hard courses all in a row,” Konyar said.
James Wood coach Matthew Lofton said he’s gearing his team’s training with an eye on the postseason. He knows Konyar wanted to do better at Oatlands, so he was pleased Konyar showed what she’s capable of on Saturday.
“I think this was kind of a reassurance for her this week, having a really dominant performance,” Lofton said.
Other scoring performances for James Wood were senior Alina Kieffer (11th, 20:29.52), senior Katelyn Palmer (23rd, 21:19.19), junior Ally Oliver (24th, 21:31.9) and freshman Abigail Ebert (32nd, 21:53.3). The top 15 runners earned medals.
Lofton likes the Colonels’ depth, with nine runners who are capable of running in the top seven. James Wood also features senior Lauren Thompson (45th in 22:29.72 on Saturday) and freshman Grace Dawson (65th in 23:32.74). In the JV race, the Colonels were led by senior Kirin Nashed (third in 23:15.98) and sophomore Melanie Padilla (fifth in 23:18.09).
“Our top seven has kind of been interchangeable the last couple of weeks,” Lofton said. “So I think we looked great. I’m really happy with the way everyone’s starting to fall in after some tougher workouts. I think it’s finally starting to click. We’re just looking really strong. I’m really excited for two weeks from now at Third Battle [at Millbrook].”
Just like at Oatlands last week (42nd), Clarke County junior Landon Horton was the top local boys’ runner.
Halfway through the 116-boy race, Horton was second to only eventual winner Jack Cassidy, a Loudoun County junior. Horton fell back in the final mile, but he still finished fifth in 16:49.54, 14 seconds behind Cassidy (16:35). Cassidy won by four seconds over Potomac Falls’ Gavin Jackson.
A year ago, Horton placed 11th at the Judges Classic in 17:31.58. Horton’s 16:43.43 at Oatlands was more than six seconds better than his PR last year, a season that ended with him earning a state medal after placing 15th in Class 2.
“I tried really hard over the summer to get a lot better,” Horton said. “I feel I’ve seen that in my times here, the three races I ran, especially this race. I got out and set a time in my mind for my first mile, and that put me in second for half the race. I kind of hit a wall and dropped back down to fifth, but I’m incredibly proud of my placement and time.”
A year ago, Horton’s 15th-place finish in Class 2 ranked fourth on the Eagles, who captured their first state title since 2009. With the three Eagles who finished ahead of him having graduated, Clarke County is counting on Horton to play a bigger role this year, and he’s enjoying it.
“I need to keep setting an example,” Horton said. “[Those seniors last year] were definitely role models of what a good cross country runner should be. I’m trying to find ways where I can be a role model for the younger guys, and my junior and senior teammates.”
Clarke County coach Jeff Webster said Horton is doing exactly what he wants to see from him.
“He put in a lot of work over the summer for base training,” Webster said. “He’s a leader in terms of his commitment day to day, and then he goes out to races and he delivers. Top to bottom, Landon is leading by example, and that sets a really good tone for these guys.
“He came off a really good PR at Oatlands last week. It’s tough to run these two courses back to back, and [Saturday], he basically matched his effort. I think that’s a huge win for him.”
The Eagles’ other scoring runners on Saturday were junior Matthew Lisk (25th, 17:44.35), senior Warren Maiberger (57th, 18:31.67), senior Jonathan Hornbaker (72nd, 18:47.07) and junior Brody Ellis (77th, 19:04.95).
The Eagles also had sophomore Liam Underwood (89th in 19:28.76) and junior Carter Starley (110th, 20:44) run in the varsity race. Freshman Ethan Roux set a PR of 19:48.45 to take 20th in the boys’ JV race. Junior Adam Hillerson was the team’s No. 2 runner at the season-opening Central Invitational but is being treated carefully after missing much of last year with an injury.
“We’ve got a really nice depth,” Webster said. “In case somebody doesn’t have a great day, there always seems to be somebody there to pick them up. That’s going to pay dividends when we get into meets against schools of our size [in the postseason].”
Clarke and Strasburg were the only VHSL Class 2 schools in the meet.
Handley girls’ scorers: 10. EJ Mullins 20:26.26; 18. Sage Welpott 21:11.0; 29. Audrey Rinker 21:50.5; 30. Seneca Welpott 21:51.33; 33. Ella Warren 21:53.32.
Clarke County girls’ scorers: 25. Lyla Gerenski 21:40.03; 36. Margaret Myer 21:56.41; 37. Morley Hudson 21:58.68; 41. Mia Timberlake 22:19.83; 66. Emma Husted 23:38.96.
Sherando girls’ scorers: 26. Mia Adams 21:42.4; 27. Amelia Rice 21:48.2; 83. Addison Holbrook 24:32.82; 95. Madeline Koch 25:35.08; 103. Clara Sargent 26:24.02.
Handley boys’ scorers: 8. Noah Meleason 16:57.69; 11. Everett Otto 17:01.57; 34. Will Thomas 17:59.27; 61. Samuel Plitt 18:34.68; 74. Will Truban 18:59.41.
Sherando boys’ scorers: 29. Chester Konisiewicz 17:49.34; 32. Andrew Ahrens 17:53.89; 43. Quintin Priest 18:13.9; 46. Gus Barbe 18:21.34; 47. Gavin Flynn 18:21.71.
James Wood boys’ scorers: 39. Zach Harrington 18:05.12; 66. Carrick Amerine 18:41.16; 79. Abe Miller 19:06.95; 88. Creed Olah 19:28.71; 97. Alecsander Kluge 19:42.72.